Installing a Compatible SSD Drive in HP Pavilion Desktop

[rmartin00]

I would like to install a compatible SSD drive in the pavilion 500-297c and transfer the system and program files to it.  There are so many SSD, I have no idea which ones are compatible. I visited a site which sells SSD and selected a Samsung but received a message "We are not sure this is Compatible."  I think a 256GB is sufficient.  Please recommend a  compatible drive.  I have both an external backup drive and DVD with the system files. Can I do the transfer without uninstalling the current HDD?

[Huffer]

Here's the specs:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04058835

You have a 3.5 inch bay and a 5.25 inch (DVD) bay and you want to add a 2.5 inch wide and 7 mm thick SSD. There is no official place to put it but it is not hard to rig up another mount. Heck I have seen folks just take a strip of duct tape and duct tape an SSD under the hard drive or somewhere inside the case. Since SSDs have no moving parts its not going to cause an issue with it other than not being real attractive. I have also seen folks (maybe even yours truly) adapt a metal caddy from a floppy drive or other 2.5 inch device and figure some way to bolt the assembly into the enclosure so it looks a bit neater. 

You have 4 SATA ports on the motherboard so you have a spare SATA port and you have to find a way to bring SATA power to the SSD, perhaps with a molex splitter and then a Molex to SATA power adapter. 

It appears you have a 1 TB hard drive and I would encourage at least a 512 gig SSD as it would make it easier to clone the 1 TB drive to it. Any 2.5 inch wide and 7mm thick SSD will work and there are great sales on them this holiday season. You can't beat 65 bucks...a year ago this would have been nearly twice that:

https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Performance-Internal-SP512GBSS3A55S25/dp/B07997QV4Z/ref=sr_1_1?...

Post back with any further questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed. 

[rmartin00 · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much.  I purchased a Samsung 860 EVO SSD and it is up and running.  I purchased an Insignia SATA cable and  SSD mount at the same time.  Had to use the cable but the drive bay has a place right above the HDD that you can mount the SSD drive. Two drive bay screw holes line up perfectly at each corner of the SSD.  The power supply to the HDD has an extra plug which works with the SSD.  I will return the SSD mount I bought as it is not needed. 

I now have to clone the existing HDD to the SSD and set the computer to boot from the SSD.  That should speed up  the old Pavilion considerably.  Again thanks for the help.